152 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
and banks in the communes of Aisne, Oise, and Somme in good 
repair. 
Cherry Plantations in the South.— Owing to its comparatively 
warm winter and early summer, the South of France is able to 
keep the North supplied with early fruit. Bordeaux does a large 
trade in Cherries. The St. George variety, which is cultivated 
about Eoussillon, ripens in April, especially when grown in the 
neighbourhood of Ceret. 
Both Bigarreau and other Cherries are grown in the Langue- 
doc district, but not in such large quantities as in Provence, 
which is so favoured both by sun and moisture. Here I have seen 
■ extensive orchards of short-stemmed trees, which thus escape the 
. cold north-east wind, and are enabled to send large supplies of 
.early fruit to the towns in the North. The Bigarreau is largely 
cultivated in the Gard district, also round about Moissac (Tarn- 
et-Garonne) and in the commune of Eouffiac (Haute-Garonne). 
In the neighbourhoods of Tarascon, Avignon, Saint-Eemy, 
Sollies-Pont, La Ferlede, La Crau, Le Luc, and Vidauban the 
''Guigne" (Heart-Cherry) is preferred for export — namely, the 
(le Bale (early) and cho Luc varieties, which are at their best 
from the 20th of April to the 5th of May. Next come in order of 
ripening the de Mai Bigarreau, a local variety, also the Holland 
and d Courte Queue and the Montmorency Cherry. At the present 
time a great many Oiillins (early) and Jahoulay Bigarreau" 
varieties are cultivated, the latter ripening from the 1st to the 
10th of May. 
The Guignes (Heart- Cherry) are less hardy than the Bigar- 
reaus, and do not bear the great heat in the Provence depart- 
ment as well as the latter. I have known plantations of 850 
trees to produce 1,000 kilos, of Cherries of the early de Bale 
variety, planted at a distance of 2^- metres, the fruit being sold 
for 700 francs. 
Another Vaucluse orchard, composed principally of the 
Jahoulay variety, is manured every other year with silkworm 
chrysalises 1 — the trees being planted 7 metres apart. 
During the first fortnight in June, SolUes, in the Var depart- 
ment, forwards daily five or six waggon-loads of Cherries. The 
orchards are getting much more extensive. At Grans, in the 
same district, the early Guigne de Bdle is packed up in small 
boxes purchased at Bolli^!S-Pont, ready made and ornamented 
